Fatalism is the doctrine that certain events are fated to happen, no matter what. This might mean that an event is fated to take place at a specific time, or that someone is going to do some deed, no matter what anyone does to try to

prevent it. Fatalism differs from determinism. One way they differ is that a fatalistic view about the occurrence of a certain event does not depend on the laws of nature determining only a single course of events. There may be many possible futures that differ in many ways, but they all will include the fated event. Oedipus, for example,

was (allegedly) fated to marry his mother and kill

his father. This didn't mean that there was only one course of action open to him after hearing the prophecy, but that no matter which course he took, he would eventually end up doing that which he wanted most to avoid. A second way

they differ is that an event may be determined by prior causes even though it was not fated to occur;for among those prior causes may be the decisions and efforts of human agents. So determinism does not entail fatalism about all events.